I still haven’t been to Chez Panisse, having not yet attained the kind of financial freedom that allows for spur-of-the-moment California trips and $150 dinners. Still, I have always admired what Alice Waters has to say, even if, at times, her preciousness grates. It’s important — now more than ever — to be conscious about our choices, food or otherwise.

Furthermore, she is right. She is absolutely right-on:

When we’re eating fast food, we’re not just eating the food, we’re eating a set of values that comes with the food. And it’s telling us that food should be cheap. It’s telling us that food should be the same no matter where we are on the planet. It’s telling us that advertising confers value. That it’s OK to eat 24 hours a day. That there are unlimited resources. It’s telling us that the work of the people who grow or raise the food is unimportant — in fact we don’t even need to know. And all of those values are informing what’s happening in the world around us. We’re ending up with malls instead of beautiful places to live in.

From an interview with Alice Waters at Slate.com.

And, delightfully enough, I recently discovered another ardent food-lover and Michael Pollan (likely Alice Waters, too) devotee right here in the Berkshires: the funny and passionate proprietress of Cleaner Plate Club.